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Take a ride to Ferropolis with all your besties in tow. Break out of your daily routines and become one with the present. Let yourself drift from stage to stage listening to the peninsula’s pulsating beats between breathtaking steel giants. Dive into a flickering sea of lights until the sun rises again on Lake Gremmin’s horizon. Then jump into the lake’s cool waters and start anew: that’s the legendary Melt Festival for you.

Over the past 20 years, Melt set new standards on the international festival circuit and left nothing to be desired. Groundbreaking performances by Björk, Pet Shop Boys, The Streets, Portishead, Moderat, Kylie Minogue, Tame Impala, Justice, Disclosure, Jamie xx, Flume, Oasis, Lana Del Rey, Boys Noize, Sven Väth, Richie Hawtin and many more turned Ferropolis upside down while the best of what the electronic scene had to offer blurred the lines between genres altogether. You want more? Then don’t hesitate and join the euphoric crowd on the Sleepless Floor – and dance until you drop.

Ferropolis

Ferropolis – the city of iron – is situated in the south-west of Saxony-Anhalt near the town of Gräfenhainichen, about 20km away from Dessau. The former coal mine Golpa-Nord was center of the industry up to it’s closure in 1991. Today the now flooded ground with it’s central peninsula, the lake and five gigantic excavators shape a museum, monument and modern event arena in the same time and invites you to relax by the lake or discover the forest. This unique and imposing backdrop has been the meeting of Melt Festival since 1999, bringing together industrial history, culture and nature.

Due to it’s central connection to the road and railroad network, Ferropolis is easily accessible from all over Germany. Ferropolis can be reached via the B107 exit Jüdenberg in the direction of Gräfenhainichen. Regional trains depart from several German cities to the stations Dessau, Wittenberg and Gräfenhainichen. From there shuttle busses will take you directly to the festival. There is also Leipzig/Halle Airport nearby and only 45 minutes by car from Ferropolis.

Read more about how to make your way to Ferropolis in our travel section.

History

With almost 1,000 festival-goers, the foundation of one of Germany’s most legendary and diverse festivals was laid at Lake Bernstein in Velten in 1997: the birth of Melt! Festival. After a two-year intermezzo at Lärz Airport, the perfect backdrop for Melt! was found in Ferropolis, the City of Iron, in 1999. Even in its early years, current key players of the Berlin scene like Ellen Allien, Dixon, Richie Hawtin and others got behind the decks, who have been strongly connected with the festival to this day.

After moving to Ferropolis, the German techno and rave festival pioneer at Lake Gremmin soon became a flagship on the international festival circuit and a melting pot for musicians and artists from across the globe. The Sleepless Floor, which has been turning day into night since 2004, became the heart of the festival, boasting directional electronic beats nonstop.

In 2008, the festival was extended to three days with Björk taking the stage on Melt!’s first ever festival Sunday. In the years to come, Atoms For Peace, Portishead, Disclosure and others took over the Sunday slot and made sure the festival would go out with a bang. Like the festival itself, the festival grounds have also been taking on new form over the years. In 2016, the site was expanded by giving further access to the lake, an open-air cinema as well as the adventurous ‘Forest‘ equipped with a treehouse, hammocks and its very own dance floor.

With Melt, you can always count on one thing: the excitement keeps on coming!